Liberating Praxis: Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics

(Hardback)

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This volume provides a holistic study of the work of Paulo Freire. It is a comprehensive review of Freire's ideas against the context from which they emerged. It provides a broad reading of Freire including the posthumous publication of a number of his remaining works into English. It draws connections between his work and a number of the figures with whom he is identified, as well as his experiences as an educator and consultant. This book provides a broad and varied international perspective to the work (including posthumous works recently translated into English) and life of Paulo Freire. It clarifies how his ideas emerged at different stages of his development as a social thinker. In addition it provides insight into others associated with Freire, e.g., Julius Nyerere. It allows students of Freire's work's to access the appropriate background material and discussion to place Freire's work in the context of his many writings. Freire's groundbreaking work with adults in the developing world with their legacy of colonialization changed the conversation of how best to teach literacy and other basic skills to previously unschooled adults. His consideration of the effects of colonialism, migration, and racism are of particular and pressing import today.

Reviews

.,."[A] pathfinding work by one of the world's leading Freirean scholars. The current political climate and the intensification of neoliberalism as a global strategy of exploitation demands that we take Paulo Freire's legacy to heart, and Mayo's treatment of Freire's pedagogy and politics makes this urgently clear. It also sets the terms of the debate for how educators can proceed apace in taking up the struggle for social transformation."-Peter McLaren, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies UCLA
"A meticulous piece of work that updates and weaves Freire's thought with that of other critical educators and philosophers, producing a text of great clarity and valuable insight. Mayo's exploration of the concept of 'reinvention' and the concrete application of Freire's ideas to his own context constitutes an excellent example of praxis in the emancipatory education in which he engages. This work substantially advances the understanding of adult education for transformative ends."-Nelly Stromquist, University of Southern California

Author Bio

PETER MAYO is Associate Professor, Education, University of Malta. He is co-editor of the Journal of Postcolonial Education and the author of several books and articles concerning the work of Paulo Freire, Antonio Gramsci, and other works on adult education.